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He was promoted to Bundesliga 2 with the first team at OSC Bremerhaven and went straight back down in 1979/80. But his performances in the 35 games in the second season were so good that Fortuna Köln, rivals from Bundesliga 2 North, brought him to the Südstadion. He made a name for himself there, became a U21 international and in his second season at Fortuna received lots of offers from the Bundesliga. Wolfgang Rolff opted for Hamburg SV.
From the 1982/83 season he was a first choice in Hamburg where he played 32 Bundesliga matches helping HSV to become champions of Germany. The high point in that season was the final in the European Cup. In the final against Juventus, Rolff played their midfield maestro Michel Platini off the park. The North German club became champions of Europe with a goal scored by Felix Magath. As season he made his debut for Germany. Wolle made his first of 37 international appearances in a 1-0 defeat in Portugal on 23 February 1983. After the 1986 World Cup and being a runner-up he arrived under the Bayer Cross. In his three years at Bayer 04, he played 125 games and scored 14 goals. Very important was his penalty converted as the second player in the penalty shootout in the UEFA Cup final against Espanyol. As the captain of the Werkself he was the first to hold the trophy up into the dark night sky.
After three years in Leverkusen, Wolfgang Rolff joined Racing Strasbourg in the summer of 1989. He returned to Germany a year later, this time to Bayer 05 Uerdingen. They was relegated from the Bundesliga. For the 1991/92 season he followed the call of Karlsruher coach Winfried Schäfer and helped KFC achieve a UEFA Cup finish. In that competition, Karlsruher caused a stir in the following season by reaching the semi-finals.
In 1994, at the age of 35, Wolfgang Rolff returned to the Rhineland again. Firstly he played for FC Köln for three years and then another season for Fortuna Köln in Bundesliga 2.
He started his coaching career after ending his playing career. After being head coach at SV Meppen, he primarily made his name as assistant coach to Berti Vogts – including in Leverkusen – and Thomas Schaaf. Rolff had his best years in Bremen. He stayed with the Green and Whites from 2004 to 2013 and he won the Pokal with Werder Bremen in 2009 with a 1-0 win against Bayer 04 in the final. The North Germans were back in the final a year later but this time they lost 4-0 to Bayern Munich.
Wolle looks back at a long career in football. Both as a player and as a coach, he has experienced and seen a lot. Today he runs a sports marketing agency with his son Yannik and lives in Cologne with his wife Andrea.
Dear Wolle, I wish you many happy returns on your 65th birthday. Stay fit and healthy and have a great time!
Bernd Schneider, born in Jena on 17 November 1973, spent his early years in the German Democratic Republic. He took his first steps in football at the two Jena clubs BSG Aufbau and FC Carl Zeiss, the biggest club in his hometown. He played in the second division for six years in the 90s. Bernd Schneider stood out as an accomplished dribbler with his experience from street football always evident. His nickname Schnix comes from the Thuringian dialect: ‘Schnixeln’ is a synonym for dribbling, being able to control the ball. After Jena were relegated in 1998, Schnix went in the opposite direction. Newly promoted Eintracht Frankfurt brought into the Bundesliga. He spent a year there.
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18 June 1950 saw a friendly match for FC Köln, formed from the merger of two clubs in February 1948, against the Werkself at the Stadion Am Stadtpark. The two teams had already faced each other in May 1949 as winners of the Rhine district leagues in the final for promotion to the Oberliga West. The new club from Cologne came out on top in the two games and were promoted.
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In a messed-up season in 1984/85 everybody is happy that the battle against relegation is over before the final matchday. The visitors are UEFA Cup contenders SV Waldhof Mannheim in front of a sparse 6,000 spectators at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. The Waldhof lads under their coach Klaus Schlappner are the surprise packet of the season. In their second campaign in the Bundesliga, the team from Mannheim are fifth on 35 points (with two points for a win back then) ahead of the game in Leverkusen and in a UEFA Cup qualifying spot. Two points behind them are Bayer 05 Uerdingen and Hamburg SV.
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Tranquillo Barnetta was born in St. Gallen in Switzerland on 22 May 1985. Quillo, as he was called in the football world, has Italian roots. His great-grandfather emigrated from Italy to the east of Switzerland. Quillo was interested in football early on and he played for the St. Gallen club FC Rotmonten from the age of six. He joined his favourite club FC St. Gallen at the age of 11. There he became a youth international. He won the European Championships with his teammates in the Switzerland U17 team in 2002. The youngsters from Switzerland beat France 4-2 on penalties in the final to become U17 European champions.
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Since the establishment of the Bundesliga on 28 July 1962 for the 1963/64 season, there have been five Regional Leagues: North, Berlin, West, South-west and South. The champions of those five leagues qualified directly for promotion play-offs that were played in two groups of four teams. That included the two second-placed teams in the West and South-west Regional Leagues. The two runners-up from the North and the South played a qualifier for the eighth place in the promotion games.
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